


find me where the wild things are

by fiveminutemajor



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cat Cafe, Hella Cute guy, M/M, Not Hockey Players (Hockey RPF), Rare Pairings, but hartsy still is (implied), date because of a bet (not really but kind of), frosty is a barista who makes approximately two coffees this whole time, grumpy cat as a plot device, like really really rare pair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21856756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveminutemajor/pseuds/fiveminutemajor
Summary: in which morgan knows what he wants and is too afraid to ask for italternativelycarter is surprised by the cats and morgan is surprised by carter
Relationships: Carter Hart/Morgan Frost
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	find me where the wild things are

**Author's Note:**

> normal stuff like:  
> \- if you came across this by googling yourself or anyone you know personally, please click off! this is a work of fiction!  
> \- thanks to all the people who helped motivate me to actually write and for the cat names
> 
> enjoy!

"Just a, um, black coffee please" Carter normally would have preferred something a little sweeter but he couldn't bring himself to pay attention to the menu.

"What size?" The barista asked.

"Huh?"

"What size would you like the coffee?" 

"Oh, um, a medium?" Was the barista seriously not paying attention? Was Carter the only one that could see them?

"Alrighty, that'll be 3.25! Would you like to round up to 4 dollars and make a donation to Little Paws, Big Hearts?" Carter had to be dreaming, there was no other way to explain the barista paying no attention to the very large tabby cat walking across the counter. He fumbled for change and probably said sure to rounding up.

"Perfect! Your coffee will be out in a minute!" The barista turned away from Carter and yelled to what Carter assumed was the kitchen or break room. "Frosty! Get out here, you've got a coffee to make!" There was a responding groan and then quite possibly the cutest guy Carter had ever seen walked through the double doors. He had tousled brown hair and sleepy doe eyes that killed Carter right then.

"Yeah, yeah, okay. I still don't understand why I have to make the coffee, you know how to work the machine!" Of course his voice was nice, it almost made Carter want to wrap himself up in it like a cozy blanket.

"Look, you're bad with the customers-"

"Am not!" Cute Guy - Frosty, the other barista had called him - objected.

"Do I need to bring out the list?"

"Not the list! You wouldn't dare!" Frosty put the back of his hand on his forehead and pretended to faint onto the counter like a damsel in distress. Before Carter could stop himself, he giggled. Actually giggled. He was pretty sure that sound had never come out of his mouth before. It must have surprised Frosty too, because he jumped up and brushed himself off. 

"One black coffee, coming right up!" He smiled brightly and yeah, that was nice too.

Carter had nearly forgotten about the cats until one of them brushed against his leg. He instinctively recoiled, but leaned down to hesitantly pet it's head. 

"That's Cookie, she's a real sweetheart."

Carter looked up and Frosty was there, in all his unfairly adorable glory. He held out Carter's coffee with a half-smile.

"So uh, what's the deal with the cats?" Carter asked, taking his warm and enticing coffee.

"What do you mean? This is a cat cafe!" Frosty said, a hint of confusion edging in on his bright voice.

"A… cat cafe?" Carter was getting more confused by the minute.

"Did you not know? That's crazy! We usually get people who show up for the cats and don't know we serve coffee, never the opposite!" Frosty paused to pet yet another cat that had jumped onto the counter. "All of the cats, like Mr Tibbles here," he gestured to the cat in front of him, "are shelter cats that come here to hang out while they wait to be adopted! People can come in and hang out, and if they decide to take one home, they can!"

"Oh, huh." Carter said dumbly and Frosty's smile fell just slightly. "Cool. I mean, um, that's actually really cool! I kinda stumbled in here on accident and I wasn't expecting there to be a bunch of cats. It's cool though." Carter mentally facepalmed for the amount of times he said cool in the last thirty seconds. Frosty didn't seem to mind though, as his smile had returned to it's megawatt status.

"You're welcome to chill here for a while if you want, cuddle the cats if that's your jam. There's a board over there with their pictures and names!" Frosty gestured to a bulletin board that Carter hadn't noticed at first that was indeed covered with photos of the various cats meandering around the cafe.

“Yeah, okay, thanks!” Carter said, and Frosty turned away to probably clean something behind the counter. Carter wandered over to the bulletin board, sipping at his coffee. There was a cat tree right next to the board with two cats lying on it. One was a tuxedo cat with two little white socks on it’s front paws. Checking the board, Carter found that he was appropriately named Penguin. The other cat had possibly the most interesting pattern. It was a small calico cat with little black and grey spots and it had one blue and one green eye. Carter saw that it was a girl, and her name was Jolly.

Penguin looked like a nice enough cat so Carter gave him a little scratch on the head, which he seemed to appreciate. Carter wasn’t about to go near Jolly. She had a menacing look on her face that he had seen too many times right before getting clawed. He stuck to petting Penguin and maybe he smiled a bit when the small cat arched against his hand.

-

Morgan had definitely seen him before. There was this strange sense of familiarity around the guy, but he had no idea where it came from. The first thought Morgan had when he saw the guy standing at the counter was ‘I know this guy, but from where?’ Well, that was his second thought. His first thought was ‘dang this guy is hella cute.’ (yes, he thought the word hella).

Morgan has a problem. He’s really, really into guys and it’s really, really easy for him to catch feelings. And maybe he blushes every time he thinks about Hella Cute guy petting Penguin until he finished his coffee. What? Like it’s a crime. It’s not like the guy’s ever gonna know. Morgan wouldn’t ever tell him. It’s bad enough that Morgan had been mentally referring to him as Hella Cute guy and would probably slip up and call him that when he came in again. If. If he came in again. He seemed a little apprehensive about the cats.

As it turns out, Morgan didn’t have to be worried. Or, maybe he did have to be worried, but for a different reason. Hella Cute guy came back the next day. He did much the same as he had the day before. This time there were a few more people in the cafe, so Morgan had the chance to ask for his name with the excuse of needing it for the cup.

“Carter.” He said. Huh. It was strangely fitting for him. A lot of things about Carter were just a little strange, like the quirk of his lips when Penguin or Mr Tibbles rubbed up against his leg, or the little giggle he let out when Morgan did something stupid. Morgan liked strange. He liked Carter.

Carter came back to the cafe nearly every day. He rarely varied from his routine. Carter showed up at precisely 7:48 every morning, ordered a black coffee, hung out with the cats and chatted with Morgan, and left at 8:21. Morgan enjoyed his 33 minutes with Carter more than he’d like to admit. It’s not like they talked all that much, their conversations usually varied from “how was your day” to “Penguin misses you” and not much else. 

One day it’s different. Morgan got Carter’s coffee ready at 7:47 like he’d done for the past little while (it’s black coffee, it really isn’t a waste if he didn’t end up coming in), but Carter didn’t show up at his usual time. In fact, he didn’t show up for an hour. Morgan must have been checking his watch and the clock on the wall because his coworker, Bridget, snapped in front of his eyes.

“Missing your boyfriend?” She teased.

“Shut up, he’s not my boyfriend.” Morgan crossed his arms and pouted. 

“Okay, sure. But you want him to be, right?”

“I barely know the guy!” He protested.

“Doesn’t mean you don’t wanna snuggle up to him in this cold weather!” Bridget poked Morgan in his side and stuck out her tongue. “Tell you what. I bet you a day’s tips that you won’t ask him out next time he’s in here.” Morgan froze. He could not take the bet, but then Bridget would be on him for the next six months about it. A day’s tips was a lot, considering how many people came in to hang out with the cats and felt bad for not ordering coffee. He stood to gain quite a lot, because if he asked Carter out, then he got money and maybe Carter. If he took the bet and chickened out, he lost valuable tip money that would have likely gone towards necessities. Worst of all though, is he could take the bet, ask Carter out, and creep him out enough to make him stop coming. 

“Hello? Earth to Frosty?” Bridget waved her hand in front of Morgan’s face. “We got a deal?” She extended the hand that had been inches from Morgan’s nose to shake. Morgan took a deep breath.

“Yeah,” he shrugged, “we’ve got a deal.” Morgan shook her hand and she winked at him.

“You’ll thank me for this, lover boy!”

Each day that went by without Carter showing up made Morgan relieved and crushed a little at the same time. As it turned out, Morgan had five more days to psych himself out of going through with the bet. He was in the breakroom when the little bell signalled the door opening. As soon as Morgan had given up hope in ever seeing Carter’s soft little smile ever again, he heard Bridget say those goddamned words. 

“Hey Carter! Where’ve you been?” Morgan could hear the smugness in her voice and he jumped up to go to the front.

“I was off on a... work trip.” Carter said, and oh, Morgan missed his voice. He was so far gone on a guy he barely knew. Morgan walked through the doors and nearly tripped over Jolly. 

“Well, Frosty missed you.” Bridget laughed and Morgan flushed, hiding his face as he walked over to the two of them.

“I missed Penguin, that’s the only reason I came back.” Carter joked, and Morgan felt his tension release. It’s just Carter, nothing to be worried about.

“You didn’t miss your favorite barista?” Morgan teased and put on his best pouty face.

“You mean Bridget? Yeah, I missed her, no one makes coffee better.” Carter said, poker-faced, and held his hand up for a high-five that Bridget gladly returned.

“That’s a lie and you know it. You’ve never tasted Bridget’s coffee.”

“Well I don’t see another barista around here, do you?” Carter asked Bridget, ignoring Morgan’s grumbly protest.

“Hey, you love me, don’t lie.” Morgan scrunched his face and stuck his tongue out.

“Yeah okay, I missed you, Mo.” Carter said softly, his cheeks a bit pink. And wow, okay, Morgan wasn’t expecting the way his heart did a painful little twist at Carter’s words. Bridget took that moment to head to the break room, and Morgan appreciated the space if he was gonna go through with the whole bet thing. Carter looked down at the counter and Morgan snapped out of his cute guy induced haze to make him a coffee. As he was going through the muscle memory steps of making coffee, he heard Carter clear his throat.

“So, uh, I hope this isn’t weird but,” Carter ran a hand through his hair, “d’you maybe want to like, grab some coffee sometime? Well, maybe not coffee because you work here with coffee all day so lunch? Actually I know your shift doesn’t end until the afternoon so dinner? Or is dinner too fancy-” Morgan cut Carter off by placing a hand over his on the counter.

“I’d like that.”

“Yeah?” Carter still seemed a bit unsure about the whole thing.

“Yeah.” Carter’s responding smile was blinding and Morgan could have quite possibly dropped dead right there and then had it not been for Jolly rubbing up against their arms.

“Hey! She likes you now!” Morgan said, excited because Jolly had had some sort of personal vendetta against Carter from the start. 

“Yeah, I guess she does.” Carter smiled his soft smile (Morgan’s personal favorite) and used his free hand to gently stroke Jolly’s back. Morgan then remembered something very important.

“Bridget! Hand over that tip money!”

**Author's Note:**

> ~ The List is a list that Bridget keeps and adds onto every time Morgan messes up with a customer or does something stupid.  
> ~ Jolly is TK in cat form, no I will not be taking suggestions. (Penguin is Patty and yes Penguin and Jolly spend a lot of time together)
> 
> alrighty yeehaw lads,  
> thanks for reading


End file.
